Minneapolis Institute of Art

Woman's blouse (Huipil)

Kaqchikel Maya artist

Date

c. 1990

Medium

Cotton, embroidery

Culture

Kaqchikel Maya

Department

Global Contemporary Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

Santa Apolonia is one of many villages in which the weaving tradition has died out. In its place, Maya women now embellish their textiles with geometric patterns embroidered on commercial cotton cloth. So keen is their regard for fine weaving, however, that the women painstakingly recreate the look of single-face supplementary weft patterning. Each stitch is precisely placed to follow the weave of the ground cloth and tiny perpendicular stitches emulate the path of weft from row to row. Huipiles from Santa Apolonia are very unusual in two other respects, as well. First, the patterns are arranged asymmetrically in a seemingly random design; they do not form a mirror image from side to side as do many Maya patterns. In addition, embroidered decoration covers only one face of the huipil and is worn on the back, leaving a plain white ground on the front of the garment. Kaqchikel Maya, Guatemala, Americas

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